Deep Thought

Got whacked in the teeth by my microphone when the stand was crashed into by a drunken punter. Thankfully minimal damage, but i use a pop screen these days.

Ever since I saw him (again) with Wilko Johnson last October, Norman Watt-Roy.

In recent days, every time I click 'View new Content' in the usual fashion, I keep getting 'No new content found', and have to go to individual forums to find the new stuff. I can't figure what's going on here, and can't get it back the way it was.

I have a Gotoh 203 bridge on my Shuker, and a 201 which I retrofitted on my Mex Precision. The 201 is the more substantial of the two, with the saddle height adjustment screws of all four strings sitting in channels in the baseplate to stop any lateral movement. The 203 has them on the outer two strings only, but the outer ones anchor the inner ones so nothing's going to move much with either. The 203 has a slightly more traditional look, but they are both more substantial than the standard Fender BBOT. Can't say my cloth ears detect much in the way of difference to the sound, but they are certainly both more stable.

I had an SR500 with Elixirs on it, and they did exactly the same thing, stringy bits of plastic coming off the strings as the coating wore out. New strings time.

JJ Burnel (Surprise!) It's all his fault! Norman Watt-Roy Mike Mills John Paul Jones Chris Thompson(Screaming Blue Messiahs) Honourable mentions for Stu Morrow (New Model Army), Kim Deal, Greg Norton (Husker Du), Craig Adams (Sisters of Mercy) and Steve Hanley (The Fall).

Dave bought a strap from me, an easy, straightforward transaction, rapid bank transfer payment. A pleasure doing business with him, no hesitation in recommending-thanks!

I can only agree with preceding comments regarding the Stranglers-my personal choice would probably be Tank, closely followed by Hanging Around, Grip, or Threatened. Honourable mention also to Fall on me by REM, Debaser by the Pixies, and as I'm currently having a bit of a Foo Fighters period, probably Times like these (A Precision-alike at least, if not a real one).

I had a cabinet damaged by DHL a few years ago-and that was after nearly having to chase the driver down the road as he had stuck a failed delivery notice through my letterbox without even knocking on the door! Thankfully I heard it come through and went out and collared him. It was snowing and the box had obviously been left standing in the snow, as the cardboard was soaked, and torn, and the cab had obviously been dropped. After quite some time and some sterling work by the seller (Nick Carey from this very forum) we managed to screw some money out of them-nowhere near the cost of the cab, but enough to pay for a repair. I will never voluntarily use DHL again.

Couldn't find any black silk ones so I've been using these! [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v317/MikeyB17/DSCF4168.jpg[/IMG]

I did a similar thing back along with 'Rhythm Stick'. I can play the full length version of Black Betty, but don't.

I'm a fan of simple, classic design, and that's what the Precision represents for me, along with a sound that I've always loved. I also love it for its neck, I don't get on with narrow ones and the Precision's just works for me.

Feline-he was either using a Yamaha bass (dunno which model) at that time, or this:- Recently sold at auction at the Stranglers Convention in London for about £3500 I believe-a Kinkade handbuilt acoustic bass. The Yamaha apparently broke when he thumped it, as he is fond of doing, and he went back to his black Precision. Feline isn't my favourite of their albums, and according to most of what I've read, the band aren't terribly keen on it either. I do like Midnight Summer Dream, and I don't think Paradise is a bad track, but Jet Black is on record as saying he thinks Blue Sister is the worst thing they ever did. Jet was using a drum machine rather excessively at the time, which didn't help. I saw them live around this time, and it was one of the best Stranglers gigs I ever went to! They may have mellowed on record, but certainly not live! Aural Sculpture isn't a bad album-certainly better than Feline IMHO. Couple of classics on there-Skin Deep and North Winds-and some other decent tracks. It also contains another of their biggest turkeys-Mad Hatter. I quite like Dreamtime, the album after that, but none of their output of this period was a patch on the early stuff. Next was 10, Hugh's last album, which I never bought, because by then I'd lost interest, not to see them again until 2006 after Paul Roberts had left and Baz Warne had taken over, and they were back to a four-piece.

[quote name='pete.young' timestamp='1323207540' post='1460674'] 1/2 " pipe foam insulation and duct tape can be used to effect a repair! [/quote] Yeah, I will probably have to do something like that with it. I just sort of hoped they might be able to supply some of the proper stuff (I don't think it's standard pipe insulation they use), or point me in the right direction, but all I got was a very short 'we can't do anything'.

[quote name='ShergoldSnickers' timestamp='1323180152' post='1460172'] I bought some of these 18 months ago and have been very happy with them. They attenuate the damaging frequencies but without losing clarity, and I can still hear the bass. [b][url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alpine-Music-Safe-Filter-Plugs/dp/B000VO8PR0"][color=#000000][size=3][font=verdana, geneva, sans-serif]Alpine MusicSafe Pro Earplugs[/font][/size][/color][/url][/b] [/quote] Can I ask which filters you're using? I have a set of these, and with the silver filters in I thought I had forgotten to unmute my amp, I couldn't hear my bass at all. I use them for motorcycling or sleeping after a night shift, but I found they filtered out too much to use for playing.

Whilst looking I just found these-any experiences? [url="http://www.enhancedlistening.co.uk/Music-Earplugs/ProGuard-Custom-Music-Earplugs---NEW-DESIGN/p-321-1603/"]http://www.enhancedlistening.co.uk/Music-Earplugs/ProGuard-Custom-Music-Earplugs---NEW-DESIGN/p-321-1603/[/url]

I have a Hercules stand (not the one pictured). Folds up nice and compact, but the foam on one of the arms has worn out, which basically means the bass sits on the metal arm. Emailed the distributors for advice (wasn't asking for money back or anything, just a bit of help) and got a completely unhelpful reply saying they couldn't do anything. Won't buy any more.

Rupert Bear? I might be in the market for one of these-the plain buckle-free version, providing they do one long enough.

I think there's a lot of sense in having a similar bass to your main one. When my main bass was a US Precision, I bought a Mex Precision as backup. Dunno what they go for these days, but I still have mine, and really like it.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1320781062' post='1431391'] That won't finish up cheap. [/quote] It didn't. Reports coming in of approx. 3 grand.

The extended version of Black Betty with the really fast bass line in the middle bit. Thankfully we only do the standard version.

Joy Division-Atmosphere Stranglers-Waltzinblack, la Folie Pixies-Where is my mind? Sisters of mercy-Something Fast U2-One Leonard Cohen-Everybody knows Doors-The End Three Johns-Lucy in the rain Husker Du-Hardly getting over it The Blue Nile-Tinseltown in the rain REM-I'll take the rain, Nightswimming